Interlocking doors for conveyers.



PATENTED OCT. 16, 1906.

. M. 0. SOHWAB.

INTERLOGKING nooas FOR couvmms- APILIOATION FILED JAN-23, 1905.

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-To w ll whom it may concern.- Be it known that I, MARTIN C. SoHwAB, a

-my invention applied to it. 'vation, on a larger scale, of a part of the con- UNITED s ATEs PATENT OFFICE.

MARTIN O. SC HWAB, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO GRAVITY CONVEYOR COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. IN TERLO CKING DOORS FOR CONVEYERS.

citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Interlocking Doors for Conveyers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to interlocking doors for conveyers; and its obj ect is to provide simple means for looking all the other doors to a conveyer when one of the doors'is in use.

It also includes other novel features, which will be described in the following specification and pointed out in claims.

Like characters of reference designate cor Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 23, 1905. Serial No, 242,405.

responding parts in all ofthe figures of the drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of a gravity-conveyer of the spiral type, showing Fig. 2 is an eleveyer shown in Fig.1 which shows one of the doors and certain cooperating parts. Fig. 3

is an enlarged view of a detail of the present arrangement.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 designates a conveyer of the spiral gravity type, which comprises an outer shell 11, an inner tube 13, and a spiral conveying-surface 12. 20, 30, 4'0, 50, and designate floors or landings which are connected by the conveyer. At each of'these floors or landings openings 21., 31, 41, 51, and 61 may be provided, which aflord communication between the various landings and the conveyer. In

the drawings all: of these openings, except the lower one 21, are provided with doors 32, 42, 52, and 62. As the construction and arrangement of all of these doors are similar, I will not describe each one separately, but will take first the one which is situated at or near the landing 40. This door is designated by 42. It is attached to a pivot 43 at its lower edge. An arm or lever 44 is securely attached to this pivot 43, so that the door and the arm may be moved together. (See Fig. 3.) A pin 45 extends from the other end of the arm 44' into a rectangular slot in a locking-plate 46. v In Fig. 2a pin 45 is shown slightly modified, being provided with a head 45. The upright or vertical portion of this slot is designated as 47. and its horizontal portion as 48. The locking-plate 46 is attached Patented Oct. 16, 1906.

to and is supported by two vertical sliding rods 70, which extend downward to a point near the bottom of the conveyer, where they are attached to a yoke 71. Means are provided for supporting these rods and keeping them normally at the upper limit of their movement. In this case a spring 72, attached to the yoke 71 and to a stationary point of the building,-is provided for this purpose. This'then will keep the sliding rods 70 70, with their attached locking-plates, at their upper position, and they will all then be in the relative position to the pins on the arms as that shown in Fig. 3, where the pin 45 is at the angle of the slots 47 and 48 in the lockingplate. Now when one of these doors is opened its connected arm will move downward in the arc of a circle about its pivot. its projecting pin to move into the horizontal part 48 of the slot and at the same time to push the "lockingplate down. This will move all the other locking-platesdown, as they are all attached to the vertical sliding rods 7 O 7 0. These rods will be pushed down against the action of the spring 72. A fixed collar 73 is provided on one of them, and a catch 74, which is pivoted at 76, is pressed toward the collar by a spring 75. These parts are so arranged that when the rods-70 70 have beenpushed down by the opening of one of the doors the catch 74 will engage the fixed collar 73 and hold the rods, with their connected locking-plates, down. Fig. 1 shows one of the doors 52 opened and the various parts in the positions they will assume when a door is opened. It will be noticed that when the locking-plates are down' all of the doors are therebylocked. This is because the vertical part 47 of the slot in the locking-plates This will cause has been pulled down over the pins on the con nected arms of all the closed doors and be; cause the pin on the arm of the opened door, has moved into the horizontal part 48 of the In this waya person slot on its locking-plate. at any floor is able to open the conveyer at his floor, and it cannot be used from any other floor until he is through with it. The goods or parcels which are placed in the conveyer at any floor will then descend to the bottom floor 20, onto which they'will bev discharged through the opening 21 and over the inclined shelf 22. Means are provided near this 7 lower landing 20 for releasing the locking device. These means may comprise a lever 77, pivoted at'76' and attached to the catch 74. When this lever is raised, the catch 74 will be pushed back thereby, and the spring 72 will then raise the vertical sliding rods, with their connected locking-plates. This will close the open door and leave all the doors unlocked. It is found to be-advantageous to have the releasing device situated near the lower landing, although, of course, it may be placed at any other desired point, because in the use of such conveyers the goods or parcels are usually sent to a man stationed below. By giving such a man control' of thellocking arrangement he is enabled to'keep the desired door opened and all the others locked while he is receiving a consignment of goods and until such consignment is complete. Another lever may also be provided at this floor for another purpose. 80 designates such a lever fulcrumed at 81 andpivotally attached intermediate of its ends to the yoke 71, which latter, as before stated, is secured to vertical sliding rods 70. By means of this lever 80 the slidingrods and their'locking-plates may all be moved down-into their locked positions, which gives the person stationed at the lower landing additional control of the conveyer, because he is enabled thereby to look all of the doors in their closed position in order that he may get one consignment of parcels out of the Way before it is interfered with by another sent from, above. putting the unlocking of the doors at the discretion of the attendant at the lower floor is,- as just stated, deemed the preferable one, for he is most apt to be inconvenienced by the delivery of parcels from several landings simultaneously or in such immediate succession as to interfere with their handling at the I lower floor; but it is evident that these arrangements are not necessary to the action of theother features of the invention and that I terred from interfering and releasing their doors by seeing the signal that the conveyingsurface was in use. The signal arrangement will now be described. There is shown in Fig. l of the drawings a simple form of indicating device which may be employed for this purpose, although it is manifest that other forms and arrangements would be equally applicable. The form of signal device illustrated comprises an electric lamp at each floor, the circuits for which are led .froma source of electric supply 90 through each-lamp and to a switch which is open These arrangements of when all the doors are closed, but is closed when the vertical sliding-rods and the at tached locking-plates are moved down after the opening of any door. Such an arrangement is shown at 89. In this case an insulated contact 82 is carried by a bracket 83, secured to one of the vertical sliding rods 70, and another insulated contact '84 is held by a stationary bracket 85, secured to the lower landing, so that the two contacts are brought together when the locking-plates are down, and this completes the circuit through the lamps 86 to illuminatethem', which will be a signal in itself, or these lamps may be inclosed in a frame 87, covered with glass 88, with some such words as In use upon it, which words will be illuminated when the lamps are burning, but will be inconspicuous when the lamps are not burning.

It is manifest that many variations may be made in the details of the arrangements described in the foregoing, specification by persons skilled in the art without departing from the principles of the invention, and I therefore do not wish to be understood as limited to the exact construction and arrangement illustrated, which is merely a convenient form of carrying out the principles of the invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said open ings, and means actuated by a'movement of one'door for locking another door in a fixed position.

2. The combination with a conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, and means actuated by moving one of said doors for locking the others in fixed position.

3. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, and means operated by the opening, of one door for locking. the other doors in closed position.

4. In a gravity-conveyer, the combination with means for conveying packages or the like, said means comprising an outer casing with openings therein, a pluralityof landings, doors for said openings at said landings, and means operated by the opening of one door for locking the other doors in closed position.

5. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, and means operated by the opening of any one door for locking the other doors in closed position.

6. In a gravity-conveyer, the combination with conveying means comprising a casing, landings at openings in said casing, doors for closing said openings, and mechanism connected with each door to be operated thereby to lock the other doors in closed position upon the opening of any one door.

7. The combination with-a conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said open ings, and means operated by the opening of any one door for locking the others and for unlocking the same upon the closing of said opened door.

8. The combination with a conveyer, of a series of openings along the travel of the conveyer, doors for said openings, and means actuated by a movement of one door for locking another door.

9. The combination with a conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, and means operated by the opening of any one door for locking the others and for automatically unlocking the same upon the closing of said opened door.

10. In a gravity-conveyor, the combination with conveying means comprising an outer casing, landings at openings in said casing, doors for such openings, and mechanism connected to each door for locking the other doors in closed position upon the opening of a door and for unlocking all of the doors upon the closing of the opened door.

11. In a gravity-conveyer, the combination with conveying means comprising a casing, of floors at openings in said casing, doors for said openings, mechanism connected with each door for locking the other doors upon the opening of any one door and unlocking the other doors upon the closing of the opened door, and a manually-operable auxiliary device for setting the locking mechanism to look all the doors.

- 12. The combination with a gravity-conveyer having openings at different elevations, of doors for said openings, means actuated upon the opening of one of'said doors for locking the others in closed position, and means for holding all of said doors in locked position. i

13. The combination with a gravity-con- Veyer provided with openings at diiierent ele vations, of doors for said openings, means for locking said doors in closed position, and means for operating said locking means.

14. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for closing said openings, and means for simultaneously locking said doors in closed position.

15. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for closing thesame, means for locking said doors in closed position, and a single mechanism for holding said doors in locked position.

16. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for closing the same, interconnecting locking means for said doors, a manually-operable device for actuating said locking means, and means automatically operated for holding said locking means in locking position.

17. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with a plurality of openings,

doors pivoted below said openings, levers attached to said doors and moving withthe same, sliding rods adjacent said doors, plates provided with cam-slots and attached to said sliding rods, and pins on the aforesaid levers arranged to ride in said slots to actuate said plates to lock the other doors when one door is opened. I

18. The combination with a gravity-conveyor provided with openings, of doors for said openings, means actuated by the opening of any one door for locking the others, and means coacting with said locking means for holding said opened door in open position and the others in close position.

19. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, means actuated by the opening of any one door for locking the others, and automatic means coacting with said looking means for holding said opened door in opened position and the others in closed position.

20. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, means for locking said doors, means coacting with said locking means for holding the same in locked position, means for tripping said holding means, and means for thereupon automatically returning said locking means to normal or unlocking position.

21. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings, of doors for said openings, manually-operable means for locking said doors, means automatically operated and coacting with said locking means for holding the same in locking position, manually-operable means for tripping said holding means, and means for thereupon automatically returning said locking means to normal or unlocking position.

22. The combination with a gravity-conveyer provided with openings at different elevations, of doors for closing said openings, mechanism connected with each door for locking the other doors when one door is opened and unlocking all the doors when the one door is closed, and an auxiliary device coacting with said locking mechanism for preventing its release upon the attempted operation of any of the doors.

23. The combination with a conveyor provided with openings, landings, doors at said landings for said openings, locking mechanism for said doors, and a signaling device operated by said locking mechanism for indicating at another door that one door is in use.

24. The combination with a gravity-com veyer having a plurality of openings at various elevations, of landings corresponding thereto, doors for said openings, means actuated by the opening of one door for locking the others, a signal device at each landing for indicating that one door is open, electric cirlanding in indicating position When one door 10 cuits for said signal devices, and a circuit is in use, electric circuits for said annunciator, closer operated by said locking device. and a circuit-closer for the same.

25. The combination with a gravity-con- In Witness whereof I have signed my name veyer having a plurality of openings at vain the presence of two subscribing Witnesses. rious elevations, of landings corresponding MARTIN C. SCHWAB. thereto, doors pivotedbelow said openings, Witnesses: means operated by the opening of one door l CARL P. SOHROEDER, for locking the others, an annunciator at each E. THOS. HANNAM. 

